Martin Luther King Jr Assassination - Black History - HISTORY.com Martin Luther King Jr Assassination Martin Luther King Jr Assassination Author Martin Luther King Jr Assassination URL A+E Networks Introduction In early April 1968, shock waves reverberated around the world with the news that U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of powerful words and non-violent tactics such as sit-ins, boycotts and protest marches (including the massive March on Washington in 1963) to fight segregation and achieve significant civil and voting rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era. Google King Assassination: Background In the last years of his life, King faced mounting criticism from young African-American activists who favored a more confrontational approach to seeking change.

These young radicals stuck closer to the ideals of the black nationalist leader Malcolm X (himself assassinated in 1965), who had condemned King’s advocacy of non-violence as “criminal” in the face of the continuing repression suffered by African Americans. As a result of this opposition, King sought to widen his appeal beyond his own race, speaking out publicly against the Vietnam War and working to form a coalition of poor Americans–black and white alike–to address such issues as poverty and unemployment. Did You Know? Among the witnesses at the scene of King's assassination was one of his closest aides, Jesse Jackson. Ordained as a minister soon after King's death, Jackson went on to form Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition and to run twice for U.S. president, in 1984 and 1988. In the spring of 1968, while preparing for a planned march to Washington to lobby Congress on behalf of the poor, King and other SCLC members were called to Memphis, Tennessee to support a sanitation workers’ strike. On the night of April 3, King gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis.

In it he seemed to foreshadow his own untimely passing, or at least to strike a particularly reflective note, ending with these now-historic words: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Just after 6 p.m. the following day, King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39. Shock and distress over the news of King’s death sparked rioting in more than 100 cities around the country, including burning and looting. Amid a wave of national mourning, President Lyndon B.

Johnson urged Americans to “reject the blind violence” that had killed King, whom he called the “apostle of nonviolence.” He also called on Congress to speedily pass the civil rights legislation then entering the House of Representatives for debate, calling it a fitting legacy to King and his life’s work. On April 11, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act. King Assassination: Seeking Justice On June 8, authorities apprehended the suspect in King’s murder, a small-time criminal named James Earl Ray, at London’s Heathrow Airport. Witnesses had seen him running from a boarding house near the Lorraine Motel carrying a bundle; prosecutors said he fired the fatal bullet from a bathroom in that building. Authorities found Ray’s fingerprints on the rifle used to kill King, a scope and a pair of binoculars. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. No testimony was heard in his trial. Shortly afterwards, however, Ray recanted his confession, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Ray later found sympathy in an unlikely place: Members of King’s family, including his son Dexter, who publicly met with Ray in 1977 and began arguing for a reopening of his case. Though the U.S. government conducted several investigations into the trial–each time confirming Ray’s guilt as the sole assassin–controversy still surrounds the assassination. At the time of Ray’s death in 1998, King’s widow Coretta Scott King (who in the weeks after her husband’s death had courageously continued the campaign to aid the striking Memphis sanitation workers and carried on his mission of social change through non-violent means) publicly lamented that “America will never have the benefit of Mr. Ray’s trial, which would have produced new revelations about the assassination…as well as establish the facts concerning Mr. Ray’s innocence.” Impact of the King Assassination Though blacks and whites alike mourned King’s passing, the killing in some ways served to widen the rift between black and white Americans, as many blacks saw King’s assassination as a rejection of their vigorous pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had championed.

His murder, like the killing of Malcolm X in 1965, radicalized many moderate African-American activists, fueling the growth of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. King has remained the most widely known African-American leader of his era, and the most public face of the civil rights movement, along with its most eloquent voice. A campaign to establish a national holiday in his honor began almost immediately after his death, and its proponents overcame significant opposition–critics pointed to FBI surveillance files suggesting King’s adultery and his influence by Communists–before President Ronald Reagan signed the King holiday bill into law in 1983. Construction is underway on a permanent memorial to King, to be located on the Mall in Washington, D.C. , near the Lincoln Memorial–the site of King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington in 1963. Tags Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr American Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Archive Photos/Getty Images Updated January 15, 2016. At 6:01 p.m.

on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper's bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when, without warning, he was shot. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered King's right cheek, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. Violence and controversy followed. In outrage of the murder, many blacks took to the streets across the United States in a massive wave of riots. The FBI investigated the crime, but many believed them partially or fully responsible for the assassination. An escaped convict by the name of James Earl Ray was arrested, but many people, including some of Martin Luther King Jr.'s own family, believe he was innocent. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance What happened that evening? Martin Luther King Jr: A Dedicated Leader When Martin Luther King, Jr.

emerged as the leader of the a Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, he began a long tenure as the spokesperson for nonviolent protest in the Civil Rights Movement . As a Baptist minister, he was a moral leader to the community. Plus, he was charismatic and had a powerful way of speaking. He was also a man of vision and determination. He never stopped dreaming of what could be. Yet he was a man, not a God. He was most often overworked and overtired. And he had a fondness for the private company of women. And though he was the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner , he did not have complete control over the Civil Rights Movement. By 1968, violence had edged its way into the movement. Black Panther Party members carried loaded weapons; riots had erupted across the country; and numerous civil rights organizations had taken up the mantra "Black Power!" Yet Martin Luther King held strong to his beliefs, even as he saw the Civil Rights Movement being torn in two. Violence is what brought King back to Memphis in April 1968. Striking Sanitation Workers in Memphis On February 12, thirteen hundred African-American sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike.

Though there had been a long history of grievances, the strike was begun as a response to a January 31 incident in which 22 black sanitation workers were sent home without pay during bad weather while all the white workers remained on the job. When the City of Memphis refused to negotiate with the 1,300 striking workers, King and other civil rights leaders were asked to visit Memphis in support. On Monday, March 18, King managed to fit in a quick stop in Memphis, where he spoke to over 15,000 who had gathered at Mason Temple. Ten days later, King arrived in Memphis to lead a march in support of the striking workers. Unfortunately, as King led the crowd, a few of the protesters got rowdy and smashed the windows of a storefront. The violence spread and soon countless others had taken up sticks and were breaking windows and looting stores. Police moved in to disperse the crowd. Some of the marchers threw stones at the police. The police responded with tear gas and nightsticks. At least one of the marchers was shot and killed. King was extremely distressed at the violence that had erupted in his own march and became determined not to let violence prevail.

He scheduled another march in Memphis for April 8. On April 3, King arrived in Memphis a little later than planned because there had been a bomb threat for his flight before takeoff. That evening, King delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech to a relatively small crowd that had braved the bad weather to hear King speak. King's thoughts were obviously on his mortality, for he discussed the plane threat as well as the time he had been stabbed. He concluded the speech with Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life - longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land.

And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. After the speech, King went back to the Lorraine Motel to rest. Prev Martin Luther King Assassination: 9 Things You May Not Have Known About The Day The Reverend Was Shot Martin Luther King Assassination: 9 Things You May Not Have Known About The Day The Reverend Was Shot 01/19/15 AT 7:42 AM Close Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was planning to make a speech about sanitation workers. He was staying at the Lorraine Motel in Room 306. On the evening of April 4, he stepped out on the balcony to speak with colleagues in the parking lot below him before going out to have dinner at a local minister's home. Around 6 p.m. he was shot and killed. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was a pivotal moment in history -- and one that marked an end and beginning of a legacy.

Here are some insightful facts about that day and what happened thereafter courtesy of Syracuse.com , Stanford University and History.com : 1. Memphis minister Samuel “Billy” Kyles and Ralph Abernathy were supposed to have dinner with King when he was shot and killed, and according to Kyles, who stood near him until he died. He is supposedly the last person to spend King’s final hour with him. Download: Image(Large) Caption XML All The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is pictured during a steady rain in Washington January 18, 2015. Monday will mark the U.S. national holiday in memory of the fallen civil rights leader, who was assassinated in 1968. Photo: Reuters 2. Those who saw King get shot turned and pointed to a rooming house across the street, where they thought the shot came from. Authorities later found a gun nearby the roominghouse. The FBI linked King’s assassination to James Earl Ray, a man who had escaped a Missouri prison and rented a second-floor room near a bathroom that had a view to the motel King was staying at. Ray later pleaded guilty. 3. President Lyndon B.

Johnson ordered a national day of mourning three days after King’s assassination. The 40th Academy Awards ceremony was rescheduled to April 10. 4. Johnson didn't attend King’s funeral. He attended a memorial service for the reverend and made a statement from the White House, but because of the Vietnam War, did not go out in public very often that year. 5. More than 100,000 mourners followed two mules pulling King’s coffin through the streets of Atlanta. His funeral was attended by higher-ups including Jacqueline Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and Benjamin Mays, the president of King’s alma mater Morehouse College. Related Stories Civil Rights Kept In The Past As Schools Study MLK 6. Robert Kennedy was credited with preventing a riot in Indianapolis, despite the many riots happening elsewhere around the country. He said “Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of the world.” 7. Ray later tried to rescind his guilty plea. King’s family supported Ray trying to go to retrial and they often said publicly that he was innocent.

But the case was never reopened and he died in prison in 1998. 8. The place King was staying in Memphis, the Lorraine Motel, is now a part of the Memphis National Civil Rights Museum and his room can be viewed for $10. 9. In King’s last sermon, made the day before he died, he said: “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (4 April 1968) Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (4 April 1968) At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-ﬂoor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

News of King’s assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage in over 100 American cities. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, later confessed to the crime and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term. During King’s funeral a tape recording was played in which King spoke of how he wanted to be remembered after his death: ‘‘I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others’’(King, ‘‘Drum Major Instinct,’’ 85). King had arrived in Tennessee on Wednesday, 3 April to prepare for a march the following Monday on behalf of striking Memphis sanitation workers . As he prepared to leave the Lorraine Motel for a dinner at the home of Memphis minister Samuel ‘‘Billy’’ Kyles, King stepped out onto the balcony of room 306 to speak with Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) colleagues standing in the parking area below. An assassin ﬁred a single shot that caused severe wounds to the lower right side of his face.

SCLC aides rushed to him, and Ralph Abernathy cradled King’s head. Others on the balcony pointed across the street toward the rear of a boarding house on South Main Street where the shot seemed to have originated. An ambulance rushed King to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:05 P.M. President Lyndon B. Johnson called for a national day of mourning to be observed on 7 April. In the following days, public libraries, museums, schools, and businesses were closed, and the Academy Awards ceremony and numerous sporting events were postponed. On 8 April King’s widow, Coretta Scott King , and other family members joined thousands of participants in a march in Memphis honoring King and supporting the sanitation workers. King’s funeral service was held the following day in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church . It was attended by many of the nation’s political and civil rights leaders, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Ralph Bunche .

Morehouse College President Benjamin Mays delivered the eulogy, predicting that King ‘‘would probably say that, if death had to come, I am sure there was no greater cause to die for than ﬁghting to get a just wage for garbage collectors’’ (Mays, 9 April 1968). Over 100,000 mourners followed two mules pulling King’s cofﬁn through the streets of Atlanta. After another ceremony on the Morehouse campus, King’s body was initially interred at South-View Cemetery. Eventually, it was moved to a crypt next to the Ebenezer Church at the King Center , an institution founded by King’s widow. Shortly after the assassination, a policeman discovered a bundle containing a 30.06 Remington riﬂe next door to the boarding house. The largest investigation in Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) history led its agents to an apartment in Atlanta. Fingerprints uncovered in the apartment matched those of James Earl Ray, a fugitive who had escaped from a Missouri prison in April 1967.

FBI agents and police in Memphis produced further evidence that Ray had registered on 4 April at the South Main Street roominghouse and that he had taken a second-ﬂoor room near a common bathroom with a view of the Lorraine Motel. The identiﬁcation of Ray as a suspect led to an international manhunt. On 19 July 1968, Ray was extradited to the United States from Britain to stand trial. In a plea bargain, Tennessee prosecutors agreed in March 1969 to forgo seeking the death penalty when Ray pled guilty to murder charges. The circumstances leading to the plea later became a source of controversy, when Ray recanted his confession soon after being sentenced to a 99-year term in prison. During the years following King’s assassination, doubts about the adequacy of the case against Ray were fueled by revelations of the extensive surveillance of King by the FBI and other government agencies. Beginning in 1976, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, chaired by Representative Louis Stokes, re-examined the evidence concerning King’s assassination, as well as that of President John F. Kennedy . The committee’s ﬁnal report suggested that Ray may have had co-conspirators.

The report nonetheless concluded that there was no convincing evidence of government complicity in King’s assassination. After recanting his guilty plea, Ray continued to maintain his innocence, claiming to have been framed by a gun-smuggler he knew as ‘‘Raoul.’’ In 1993 Ray’s lawyer, William F. Pepper, sought to build popular support to reopen Ray’s case by staging a televised mock trial of Ray in which the ‘‘jury’’ found him not guilty. In 1997 members of King’s family publicly supported Ray’s appeal for a new trial, and King’s son Dexter Scott King supported Ray’s claims innocence during a televised prison encounter. Despite this support Tennessee authorities refused to reopen the case, and Ray died in prison on 23 April 1998. Even after Ray’s death, conspiracy allegations continued to surface. In 1999, on behalf of King’s widow and children, Pepper won a token civil verdict of wrongful death against Lloyd Jowers, owner of Jim’s Grill, a restaurant across the street from the Lorraine Motel.

Although the trial produced considerable testimony that contradicted the original case against Ray, the Justice Department announced in 2000 that its own internal investigation, launched in 1998 at the King family’s request, had failed to ﬁnd sufﬁcient evidence to warrant a further investigation. Sources Homer Bigarts, ‘‘Leaders at Rites,’’ New York Times, 10 April 1968. Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, 2007. King, ‘‘Drum Major Instinct,’’ in Knock at Midnight, eds. Carson and Holloran, 1998. Mays, Eulogy, 9 April 1968, MLKJP-GAMK. Pepper, Orders to Kill, 1995. Posner, Killing the Dream, 1998. The Murder of Martin Luther King Jr. - ABC News ABC News The Murder of Martin Luther King Jr. April 4, 2013 By KATE BUBACZ via WORLD NEWS Martin Luther King Jr.

was shot and killed by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., 45 years ago, on April 4, 1968. His death shocked a country rocked by riots, civil discord, and a controversial war. It sparked nationwide protests, a two-month manhunt and an outpouring of grief for the slain civil rights leader who continues to stand for equal rights, peaceful protests and justice for all. Charles Kelly/AP Photo Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. The following day, King was assassinated on his motel balcony. Joseph Louw/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Civil rights leader Andrew Young, left, and others on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel point in the direction where gunshots came from after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. His body lays at their feet. Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images As he walks through O'Hare Airport in Chicago, American civil rights leader the Rev.

Jesse Jackson holds a copy of the Daily Defender newspaper, which features the headline 'King Murdered!' April 5, 1968. The headline refers to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the evening of April 4, 1968. William Ryerson/The Boston Globe via Getty Images A man looks at the portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in the window of Jordan Marsh, a department store in Downtown Crossing in Boston, on April 6, 1968. Getty Images A soldier stands guard on April 8, 1968 on a Washington, D.C., street amid the ruins of buildings that were destroyed during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Getty Images American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. lies in repose in Memphis, Tenn., as his colleagues Andrew Young, Bernard Lee and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy pay their respects to him. Getty Images The funeral procession for civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 9, 1968 in Atlanta draws thousands of mourners who came to pay their last respects to King at a public service at Morehouse College. A private funeral was held separately at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Getty Images Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy walks through the streets with American civil rights activist Bernard Lee, left, in the funeral procession of assassinated civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., Atlanta, April 9, 1968. Getty Images The Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. and his wife, Alberta King, the parents of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, listen to ceremonies at Morehouse College during a memorial for King in Atlanta, April 9, 1968. Getty Images A large crowd of mourners follow the casket of Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Atlanta. Martin Luther King Jr. - Black History - HISTORY.com Martin Luther King Jr. A+E Networks Introduction Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest.

He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986. Google Martin Luther King Jr.: Early Years and Family The second child of Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984), a pastor, and Alberta Williams King (1904-1974), a former schoolteacher, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia , on January 15, 1929. Along with his older sister, the future Christine King Farris (born 1927), and younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King (1930-1969), he grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of the most prominent and prosperous African Americans in the country. Did You Know?

The final section of Martin Luther King Jr.’s eloquent and iconic “I Have a Dream” speech is believed to have been largely improvised. A gifted student, King attended segregated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mater of both his father and maternal grandfather, where he studied medicine and law. Although he had not intended to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the ministry, he changed his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania , where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his predominantly white senior class. King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. While in Boston he met Coretta Scott (1927-2006), a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.

The couple wed in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. They had four children: Yolanda Denise King (1955-2007), Martin Luther King III (born 1957), Dexter Scott King (born 1961) and Bernice Albertine King (born 1963). Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks (1913-2005), secretary of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days, placing a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King, heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and the activist Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), had entered the national spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance. (He had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January.) Emboldened by the boycott’s success, in 1957 he and other civil rights activists–most of them fellow ministers–founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolence. (Its motto was “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.”) He would remain at the helm of this influential organization until his death. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference In his role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled across the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders.

(During a month-long trip to India in 1959, he had the opportunity to meet family members and followers of Gandhi, the man he described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.”) King also authored several books and articles during this time. In 1960 King and his family moved to Atlanta, his native city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many of the most significant civil rights battles of the 1960s. Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins and marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities. Arrested for his involvement on April 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics. King Marches for Freedom Later that year, Martin Luther King Jr.

worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices African Americans continued to face across the country. Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of the American civil rights movement and a factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The march culminated in King’s most famous address, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial–a monument to the president who a century earlier had brought down the institution of slavery in the United States—he shared his vision of a future in which “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'” The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; later that year he was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine and in 1964 became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to the violence that erupted between white segregationists and peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) had organized a voter registration campaign. Captured on television, the brutal scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from across the country to gather in Selma and take part in a march to Montgomery led by King and supported by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973), who sent in federal troops to keep the peace.

That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act , which guaranteed the right to vote–first awarded by the 15th Amendment–to all African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Years and Assassination The events in Selma deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther King Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment to working within the established political framework. As more militant black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty among Americans of all races. In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a massive march on the capital. On the evening of April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where he had traveled to support a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray (1928-1998), an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. (He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the King family, before his death in 1998.) After years of campaigning by activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King , among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday in honor of King. Observed on the third Monday of January, it was first celebrated in 1986. Tags Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography Martin Luther King Jr. The Nobel Peace Prize 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. Share this: Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin.

His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family. See Also Post a message!

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement.

The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. Selected Bibliography Adams, Russell, Great Negroes Past and Present, pp. 106-107. Chicago, Afro-Am Publishing Co., 1963. Bennett, Lerone, Jr., What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago, Johnson, 1964. I Have a Dream: The Story of Martin Luther King in Text and Pictures. New York, Time Life Books, 1968. King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Measure of a Man. Philadelphia. The Christian Education Press, 1959. Two devotional addresses. King, Martin Luther, Jr., Strength to Love.

New York, Harper & Row, 1963. Sixteen sermons and one essay entitled "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence." King, Martin Luther, Jr., Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York, Harper, 1958. King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience. New York, Harper & Row, 1968. King, Martin Luther, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? New York, Harper & Row, 1967. King, Martin Luther, Jr., Why We Can't Wait. New York, Harper & Row, 1963. "Man of the Year", Time, 83 (January 3, 1964) 13-16; 25-27. "Martin Luther King, Jr.", in Current Biography Yearbook 1965, ed. by Charles Moritz, pp. 220-223. New York, H.W. Wilson. Reddick, Lawrence D., Crusader without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, Harper, 1959.

From Nobel Lectures , Peace 1951-1970, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. * Note from Nobelprize.org: This biography uses the word "Negro". Even though this word today is considered inappropriate, the biography is published in its original version in view of keeping it as a historical document. Joseph Louw's Photographs of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination SHARE Joseph Louw—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images Civil rights leader Andrew Young (L) and others standing on balcony of Lorraine motel pointing in direction of assailant after assassination of civil rights ldr. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is lying at their feet.

On April 4, 1968, a young South African photographer trained his lens on the aftermath of tragedy Had Joseph Louw decided to finish his dinner on April 4, 1968, the photographs that captured the horror of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination may never have come to be. Louw, a young South African photographer and filmmaker at work on a documentary about King, had been eating dinner in a Memphis restaurant during the hour before tragedy struck. A sudden urge to watch the NBC nightly news brought him back to the Lorraine Motel, where he soon heard a single shot fired. Louw, who was staying three doors down from King, immediately rushed onto the balcony, where he saw King collapse to the ground. After realizing there was nothing he could do to help, he ran inside to get his camera. “At first,” he told LIFE the following week, “it was just a matter of realizing the horror of the thing. Then I knew I must record it for the world to see.” Louw captured the chaos and emotion that hovered over that April evening. He shot four rolls of film, but one image in particular remains emblazoned on the memories of those alive to see it at the time.

In the moments following the shot, as King lay unconscious on the balcony, his comrades turned their attention to a sight in the distance: the assassin, getting away. They pointed their fingers in concert in the direction of his flight. Louw rushed to the studio of fellow photographer Ernest C. Withers to develop the film. As he did, his hands shook. “I remember the last stage of developing,” he said. “It was the longest 10 minutes of my life. The first picture I looked at was Dr. King laying behind the railing. I never did photograph him full in the face. I felt I had to keep my distance and respect.” BBC ON THIS DAY | 4 | 1968: Martin Luther King shot dead 1968: Martin Luther King shot dead The American black civil rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King, has been assassinated. Dr King was shot dead in the southern US city of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions He was shot in the neck as he stood on a hotel balcony and died in hospital soon afterwards. Reverend Jesse Jackson was on the balcony with Dr King when the single shot rang out.

"He had just bent over. I reckon if he had been standing up he would not have been hit in the face," said Mr Jackson. I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has taken Dr King President Lyndon Johnson Police in Memphis were put on alert for a "well-dressed" white man who is said to have dropped an automatic rifle after the shooting and escaped in a blue car. There were early signs of rioting in Memphis after Dr King's death and 4,000 members of the National Guard were drafted into the city. A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been ordered to ward off disturbances. The US President, Lyndon Johnson, has postponed a trip to Hawaii for peace talks on Vietnam. The president said he was "shocked and saddened" by the civil rights leader's death. "I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has taken Dr King who lived by non-violence," Mr Johnson said. Bus boycott Dr King, 39, had previously survived several attempts on his life including the bombing of his home in 1956. The charismatic civil rights leader joined the crusade for equal rights for black people in America in the mid 1950s.

He first came to national prominence as one of the leaders of the Alabama bus boycott in 1955. In 1963 Dr King led a massive march on Washington DC where he delivered his now famous "I have a dream" speech. Dr King advocated the use of non-violent tactics such as sit-ins and protest marches. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel peace prize.

Question: In which year was Martin Luther King Jnr assassinated?
Answer: 1968